Jay Baruchel Mourns End of 'How To Train Your Dragon,' Says Final Film Is 'Sadder' and Most Rewarding

Photo Credit: NINA PROMMER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

February 14, 2019

3mo ago

By Chloe Aiello

Actor and screenwriter Jay Baruchel didn't anticipate that "How to Train Your Dragon" would become a global phenomenon when he agreed to voice the lead role in the 2010 animated film. Now, about a decade later, the trilogy (and its accompanying franchise) is drawing to a close, and Baruchel is bracing himself for the end.

"I haven't quite processed that it's the end yet, but I suspect the thing that I'll miss the most is ー it's going to sound super hokeyー but being a part of something that makes a bunch of kids happy across the world," Baruchel, star of "She's Out of My League," "Undeclared," and "This Is the End," told Cheddar on Thursday.

Dreamworks' "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" will hit theaters on Feb. 22. Baruchel said the third and final chapter will be "an even more beautiful, even more rewarding experience, but what that means is it's also going to be even sadder."

"How to Train Your Dragon" is a coming-of-age story about a Viking teen misfit named Hiccup and his dragon friend Toothless. The original film was a surprise smash hit and spawned a franchise of short films, a television series, and even a couple of video games. Although Baruchel is significantly older than Hiccup, he said he's always been able to relate to his character.

Hiccup "has to make some hard choices and realize that nothing worth experiencing comes easy ... I am also dealing with those same sorts of issues," he said. "Every step of the way, I've had a frame of reference," he said.

Of course, Baruchel doesn't much resemble Hiccup, and this dissonance has caused some silly encounters with kids over the years.

"I have a lot of friends of mine who have kids. They're like, 'Oh yeah, this is Hiccup.' And then I watch them look at me and their eyes glaze over," he joked.

"I'm certainly not Hiccup, so I've been disappointing kids for 12 years."